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Mouse King
The Mouse King was the evil, seven-headed monarch and military leader of the mice army, and the dreaded enemy of the Toy-Kingdom, before he was slain by the Nutcracker. Biography According to the story told by Christian Elias Drosselmeier, the seven-headed Mouse King was the son of a Mouse Queen who lived in the kitchen of the royal palace of the kingdom in which Drosselmeier himself was employed as Court Clockmaker and Engineer. A large number of mouse traps were scattered over the castle after the Mouse Queen's troops devoured the (human) King's bacon, thus resulting in the death of several of the Mouse Queen's sons and subjects. In revenge, the Mouse Queen placed a curse on the King's daughter, Princess Pirlipat, transforming her into a hideously-deformed creature, with an oversized head and beard. Thanks to the efforts of Drosselmeier and the Court Astrologer, a cure to the Princess' condition was found in the form of a ceremony to be performed by a man who has never shaved and never worn boots. If such man could break the shell of the legendary crackatuck nut, give it to the Princess with his eyes closed, and not open them until he has taken seven steps backward without stumbling, the curse would be broken and the Princess would be restored to her former self. A boy who was the son of Drosselmeier's cousin managed to perform the ceremony and save the Princess, but while taking the seven steps backward, the Mouse Queen made him stumble (being squished to death in the process) and the curse was transferred to him, altering his appearance and eventually transforming him into the toy-sized Nutcracker. From that moment on, the Nutcracker and his Toy-Kingdom have been at war against the Mouse King. At night, the bloodthirsty Mouse King visited seven-year-old Marie Stahlbaum; one of Drosselmeier's goddaughters; who was taking care of the Nutcracker. The Mouse King sadistically demanded her to give away her dolls and gingermen, threatening to tear the Nutcracker apart otherwise. Even after she gave away her sweets, the Mouse King was not satisfied, but the Nutcracker convinced Marie that he could dispose of his enemy if she gave him a sword to hold; which she did by asking her brother Fred to borrow one from his toy hussars. After the Nutcracker managed to slay his nemesis, he gave the seven crowns of the Mouse King to Marie, who presented them to her parents as proof that the whole story was real, but they refused to believe it, and persuaded her to tell the truth, until Drosselmeier examined the crowns and told the Stahlbaums that they were actually charms that he used to wear on his watch-chain, and had given to Marie five years before. Appearances *''The Nutcracker and the Mouse King'', by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1816) Notes *In many adaptations, the Mouse King tends to be portrayed as a regular mouse with only one head instead of seven. See also *Rat King Category:Fictional Creatures Category:Sentient Beings Category:Sapient Beings Category:Mice & Rats Category:Royalty Category:Military Personnel Category:Dead Characters Category:Males Category:Characters Debuting in 1816 Category:Literary Creatures Category:Creatures Created by E. T. A. Hoffmann